[3] Before becoming an academic, Bandypadhyaya had been a diplomat, entering the Indian Foreign Service in 1955 and reaching the level of Undersecretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, before resigning in 1960 to take up a university post in Kolkata.
Bandyopadhyaya's classic study is still considered an indispensable guide to the foreign policy-making process in New Delhi.
[3] Above all, Bandypadhyaya played a leading part in advancing Jadavpur University's School of International Relations and Strategic Studies, one of the few centers of political influence outside the national capital.
The majority of his works address the theory and practice of social and economic development in postcolonial states, particularly in China and India.
They include studies of Indian nationalism and international communism (1966), and Gandhi's social and political thought (1969).